culturefandomcom-20200222-history
Cannonball Adderley
|birth_place = Tampa, Florida, U.S. |death_date = |death_place = Gary, Indiana, U.S. |instrument = Alto saxophone, soprano saxophone |genre = Hard bop, soul jazz, modal jazz, jazz rock |title=Black Messiah - Cannonball Adderley : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards |publisher=AllMusic |accessdate=July 8, 2012}} |occupation = Teacher, saxophonist |years_active = 1955–1975 |label = Blue Note, Fantasy, Capitol, Prestige, Riverside |associated_acts = Nat Adderley, Miles Davis, George Duke, Yusef Lateef, Sam Jones, Joe Zawinul, Louis Hayes, Bobby Timmons, Bill Evans |website = }} , 1961]] Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley (September 15, 1928 – August 8, 1975) was a jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Adderley is remembered for his 1966 single "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", a crossover hit on the pop charts, and for his work with trumpeter Miles Davis, including on the epochal album Kind of Blue (1959). He was the brother of jazz cornetist Nat Adderley, a longtime member of his band. Early life and career Originally from Tampa, Florida, Adderley moved to New York in 1955. |title=Cannonball Adderley - Music Biography, Credits and Discography |publisher=AllMusic |accessdate=July 8, 2012}}Cannoball-Adderley.com His nickname derived from "cannibal", a title imposed on him by high school colleagues as a tribute to his voracious appetite. Cannonball moved to Tallahassee, when his parents obtained teaching positions at Florida A&M University. Both Cannonball and brother Nat played with Ray Charles when Charles lived in Tallahassee during the early 1940s.Lydon, Michael, Ray Charles: Man and Music, Routledge (1996); updated edition, January 22, 2004, ISBN 0-415-97043-1. Adderley moved to Broward County, Florida, in 1948 after finishing his music studies at Tallahassee and became the band director at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, a position which he held until 1950. Cannonball was a local legend in Southeast Florida until he moved to New York City in 1955. One of his known addresses in New York was in the neighborhood of Corona, Queens.Berman, Eleanor. "The jazz of Queens encompasses music royalty", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 1, 2006. Accessed October 1, 2009. "When the trolley tour proceeds, Mr. Knight points out the nearby Dorie Miller Houses, a co-op apartment complex in Corona where Clark Terry and Cannonball and Nat Adderley lived and where saxophonist Jimmy Heath still resides." He left Florida originally to seek graduate studies at New York conservatories, but one night in 1955 he brought his saxophone with him to the Café Bohemia. Asked to sit in with Oscar Pettiford in place of his band's regular saxophonist, who was late for the gig, the "buzz" on the New York jazz scene after Adderley's performance announced him as the heir to the mantle of Charlie Parker. Adderley formed his own group with his brother Nat after signing onto the Savoy jazz label in 1957. He was noticed by Miles Davis, and it was because of his blues-rooted alto saxophone that Davis asked him to play with his group. He joined the Davis band in October of 1957, three months prior to the return of John Coltrane to the group. Adderley played on the seminal Davis records Milestones and Kind of Blue. This period also overlapped with pianist Bill Evans' time with the sextet, an association that led to recording Portrait of Cannonball and Know What I Mean?. His interest as an educator carried over to his recordings. In 1961, Cannonball narrated The Child's Introduction to Jazz, released on Riverside Records. Band leader The Cannonball Adderley Quintet featured Cannonball on alto sax and his brother Nat Adderley on cornet. Cannonball's first quintet was not very successful;Milkowski, Bill, "Junior Mance: Saved By A Cannonball", JazzTimes, January 16, 2012. however, after leaving Davis' group, he formed another, again with his brother, which enjoyed more success. The new quintet, which later became the Cannonball Adderley Sextet, and Cannonball's other combos and groups, included such noted musicians as saxophonists Charles Lloyd and Yusef Lateef, pianists Bobby Timmons, Victor Feldman, Joe Zawinul, Hal Galper, Michael Wolff, and George Duke, bassists Ray Brown, Sam Jones, Walter Booker, and Victor Gaskin, and drummers Louis Hayes and Roy McCurdy. Later life By the end of the 1960s, Adderley's playing began to reflect the influence of the electric jazz, avant-garde, and Davis's experiments on the album Bitches Brew. On his albums from this period, such as Accent on Africa (1968) and The Price You Got to Pay to Be Free (1970), he began doubling on soprano saxophone, showing the influence of Coltrane and Wayne Shorter. In that same year, his quintet appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival in California, and a brief scene of that performance was featured in the 1971 psychological thriller Play Misty for Me, starring Clint Eastwood. In 1975 he also appeared in an acting role alongside José Feliciano and David Carradine in the episode "Battle Hymn" in the third season of the TV series Kung Fu. Songs made famous by Adderley and his bands include "This Here" (written by Bobby Timmons), "The Jive Samba", "Work Song" (written by Nat Adderley), "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" (written by Joe Zawinul) and "Walk Tall" (written by Zawinul, Marrow, and Rein). A cover version of Pops Staples' "Why (Am I Treated So Bad)?" also entered the charts. His instrumental "Sack o' Woe" was covered by Manfred Mann on their debut album. He had a cerebral hemorrhage and four weeks later, on August 9, 1975, he died at St. Mary Methodist Hospital in Gary, Indiana. He was 46 years old. He was buried in the Southside Cemetery, Tallahassee. Legacy Later that year he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. Joe Zawinul's composition "Cannon Ball" on Black Market is a tribute to his former leader. Pepper Adams and George Mraz dedicated the composition "Julian" on the 1975 Pepper Adams album of the same name days after Cannonball's death. Adderley was initiated as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity (Gamma Theta chapter, University of North Texas, '60, & Xi Omega chapter, Frostburg State University, '70) and Alpha Phi Alpha (Beta Nu chapter, Florida A&M University). Discography References External links * *The Cannonball Adderley Rendez-vous *Cannonball Adderley Discography at Jazzdisco.org * *Cannonball Adderley at NPR Music Category:African-American jazz musicians Category:African-American woodwind musicians Category:American jazz bandleaders Category:American jazz alto saxophonists Category:Hard bop saxophonists Category:Jazz alto saxophonists Category:Jazz record producers Category:Soul-jazz saxophonists Category:1928 births Category:1975 deaths Category:Jazz musicians from Florida Category:Jazz musicians from New York Category:Musicians from Tampa, Florida Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Florida A&M University alumni Category:People from Corona, Queens Category:Miles Davis Category:Capitol Records artists Category:EmArcy Records artists Category:Blue Note Records artists Category:Savoy Records artists Category:Riverside Records artists Category:Landmark Records artists Category:Fantasy Records artists Category:Milestone Records artists Category:Verve Records artists Category:20th-century American musicians Category:United States Army Band musicians